Our Thanksgiving potluck was successful! We had mashed sweet potatoes, blondies, cupcakes, apple cider and more! There was more than enough food to go around and we tried to mix in with the Guatemala group since we don't usually have the time to talk and meet with them. We also had a guest speaker, Dustin James, who is building eco-domes in San Jacinto. He shared his plans for the area and showed the progress of one of his eco-domes. EWB-UCLA is invited to come with Dustin this winter break to help in the construction of the eco-domes! This is a great opportunity to help others and learn about engineering; basically a chance to be an engineer without borders! If interested email Dustin at dustinfjames@gmail.com
In terms of fundraising for our project, Karen has shared a Google Doc with grant resources and will help us be more organized and efficient in applying for grants. Be sure to check out the document and start working on a grant if you see no one else is working on it!
There will be no meeting next week since it will be dead week, the week before finals! Have a great Thanksgiving!
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Plywood, Partners, and Potluck
Great news! We are pretty sure that we can get plywood in Nicaragua! If the right kind of plywood is available in Nicaragua, it would make the design and construction of the schoolhouse a lot easier. During today's design meeting, we had a bigger group of people and we discussed our alternative, trusses, if we could not use plywood. Once we can confirm that there is plywood, we can start to get all the details and logistics of the design.
In the general meeting, we decided to partner up people to apply for grants. Since the EWB organization will begin to charge $500 for assessment trips and $1000 for implementation trips, we need to raise even more money!
Lastly, we ended the meeting with tentative plans for a potluck next week! We want the meeting to be short since Thanksgiving break will be starting and what better way to celebrate and be thankful than with a plethora of good food!
In the general meeting, we decided to partner up people to apply for grants. Since the EWB organization will begin to charge $500 for assessment trips and $1000 for implementation trips, we need to raise even more money!
Lastly, we ended the meeting with tentative plans for a potluck next week! We want the meeting to be short since Thanksgiving break will be starting and what better way to celebrate and be thankful than with a plethora of good food!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Trying to get creative...
Did you know a school in Guatemala was built using plastic bottles?
Today in the design meeting and in our general meeting, we placed emphasis on discussing the materials we wanted to use to build the schoolhouse. Currently, our ideal material is using plywood but we do not know if we can get plywood in Nicaragua. Our options seem to be limited because Las Brenas, the community where we are building the school, is in a remote area. From the capital of Nicaragua, it takes multiple hours of bus rides, boat rides and mule rides to get to our destination so transporting materials is a big issue. If anyone has any ideas, even as creative as using plastic bottles, they would be welcome and feel free to come to our design meetings which are held an hour before the general meeting starts in the same place! (And if you're curious as to how the plastic bottles were used, check out the link on our Google Group: EWBUCLA Nicaragua-Sanitation)
And as always, we are still working hard to get grants, the fuel that drives our project forward.
Today in the design meeting and in our general meeting, we placed emphasis on discussing the materials we wanted to use to build the schoolhouse. Currently, our ideal material is using plywood but we do not know if we can get plywood in Nicaragua. Our options seem to be limited because Las Brenas, the community where we are building the school, is in a remote area. From the capital of Nicaragua, it takes multiple hours of bus rides, boat rides and mule rides to get to our destination so transporting materials is a big issue. If anyone has any ideas, even as creative as using plastic bottles, they would be welcome and feel free to come to our design meetings which are held an hour before the general meeting starts in the same place! (And if you're curious as to how the plastic bottles were used, check out the link on our Google Group: EWBUCLA Nicaragua-Sanitation)
And as always, we are still working hard to get grants, the fuel that drives our project forward.
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